


Through Sickness, You and I

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Ignoct Week 2017 [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Caretaking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 23:57:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11657352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: Noctis gets clingy. Ignis gets determined.Day One for Ignoct Week! Prompt: Taking Care of Each Other





	Through Sickness, You and I

**Author's Note:**

> Of course I write a sickfic. Did anyone think I was going to write anything but a sickfic? :o

Noct always was a clingy person when he was sick.

Ignis smoothed his hand over Noctis’s hair and tried to check for the fever he knew that he had. He was still warm to touch, but resting his hand on Noct’s cheek was never going to be an accurate way of gauging his temperature. He rarely ran the normal number to begin with, and it was night-time. The fever was going to be higher.

He could remember when he had been nine, when Noctis had fallen ill a month off from his seventh birthday. Regis had been out on business. Ignis had gone to Noct without being told to, from both a sense of duty and concern. And Noct had crawled right into his lap, teary-eyed and red-faced. And Ignis had just held him, a little too young to know how to properly take care of a fever, and a little too scared to move lest it disturb their sleeping prince.

Not too different from now, come to think of it.

Noct had come to curl up next to him on the sofa. Ignis hadn’t even known he was awake, at first, until he had come shuffling over from the bed. Ignis had abandoned his book immediately, but before he could even get to his feet, Noctis had stopped him with a mumble about not being able to sleep and dropped onto the sofa to sit with him.

That comment about not being able to sleep had either been half truth or poor timing, because Noctis had fallen asleep quickly with his head slumped against Ignis’s shoulder. His body had tried to follow, and so Ignis had wound an arm around his shoulders to stop him from falling into his lap. Although it probably would have been more comfortable. He could have always hauled Noct up and gotten him back into bed, but the same thing that had prevented him moving when he was nine, and twelve, and again at fifteen– Noct had fallen quite ill multiple times as a child– held him back now.

Noct wanted human contact. Noct wanted _him_. It probably wasn’t wise, just as it had never been, to hold him so close while he had a fever. But just for a bit. He could never deny him anything. Especially when he was sick.

Ignis briefly rest his head against Noct’s, the prince’s hair ruffling with his breath. This journey didn’t provide them much down time. Or privacy. Now he could subtly nuzzle his face into Noct’s hair and try not to worry about him too much. He wasn’t accomplishing on the latter front.

“Mmm…” Noctis coughed, curling further into Ignis’s shoulder. A hand clumsily went to his chest, splaying against it, clutching at his shirt.

That was his cue. “Noct. You should go back to bed.”

“Mm? Wanna stay here with you,” Noct murmured. There was a definite rasp to his voice. He needed to sleep.

Ignis would compromise. “I’ll come to bed with you.” He gently nudged Noctis up. “As soon as I get you settled in, I’ll join you. Alright?”

“Oh… er, fine.” Noct blinked a few times, and then shuffled back towards the bed. Ignis took his arm to guide him the whole way, and then went to collect a cool, damp cloth to smooth onto Noctis’s forehead.

“Let me know if you need anything else, Noct.”

He fumbled with a blanket. “Just you?”

“Well,” Ignis said, leaning to kiss his cheek. Still warm. Still not accurate. “It’s a good thing that I’m always here for you.”

“Yeah.” Noctis shuffled over into Ignis’s warmth when he had settled into bed next to him.

“Noct,” Ignis chastised, “you’re supposed to be lowering your temperature, not trying to raise it with extra body heat.”

“I’m coooold.”

A small sigh, more worried than disgruntled. “Just for a few minutes,” he relented, and permitted Noct to snuggle into his awaiting arms. He never could deny him anything.

 

 

Iggy was the literal worst at admitting he was sick.

He worked himself too hard, too hard and for too long, until he was on the verge of collapse. Like now.

Noct kept a hand against his advisor’s back. “C’mon, Iggy, c’mon.”

“Prompto, come help me buy stuff. We’re gonna need meds.”

“Right!”

“Here.” Noctis carefully guided him over to one of the tables, hooking his ankle around a chair to pull it out. “Just… sit down, yeah.”

“I’ll be fine, really,” Ignis murmured, but there was a wheeze in his breathing that made Noctis nervous. He clutched at the jacket– Noct’s– draped around his shoulders. “Just a bit out of breath…”

“You never really recovered from that cold, did you?” Noct frowned. “Why didn’t you _tell_ us?”

“We had places to be… and I really was feeling better…” He turned to cough into his arm, and Noctis pressed a hand flat against his forehead. “Noct, really…”

“Don’t ‘really’ me, Specs.” He pulled his hand away. “Stay put. I’m gonna make sure the camper’s ready.”

He should have known _that_ wouldn’t last. He’d barely ducked back to the bed to make sure things were in order before he heard coughing. Coughing closer than where he had left Ignis and his head jerked up just as Iggy stepped into the camper. _“Iggy.”_

Ignis opened his mouth to speak, and coughed instead, and braced his hand against the stovetop as he continued to cough. He was nearly doubled over by the time that Noct hurried to clear the distance between them.

“Ignis! What the hell…” He held onto his arm, and rubbed uselessly at his back. “Come on, go _sit down_ …” He hadn’t _seen_ anybody cough so hard, to the point of being pale and sweaty and looking like he was going to puke. “Uhh, maybe deep breath and then hold it? I… I dunno.” He swallowed, anxiety prickling at the back of his neck as he watched him struggle to breathe.

Water. He should get him water. “Just a sec, Iggy…”

He wasn’t the caretaker. That was Iggy’s role. Always had been. He could remember him taking care of him when he was younger, all the time, and that included when he wasn’t sick. Noct wasn’t good at taking care of _himself_ , let alone trying to take care of the person who meant the most to him–

“Sorry,” he murmured, when Ignis had stopped coughing enough to sip at the water. “I don’t… don’t know how to help.” He had clapped his hand over Ignis’s knee in what he hoped was a comforting gesture; now he squeezed, briefly.

Ignis placed his hand over top of Noctis’s, and Noct still couldn’t smile. “It’s fine, Noct,” he rasped. “It’s my own fault. You’re doing fine.”

“I’m not doing _anything_.” Some king. He couldn’t even help take care of a lingering cold, let alone take care of a whole _kingdom_. If he couldn’t help his _friends_ – but it wasn’t time to dwell on that. His burdens could wait. Ignis was the one trembling beside him.

“You’re doing fine,” he said hoarsely. His smile was barely there, and Noct expected it was mostly fake. Who felt like smiling after a coughing fit like _that_?

He moved his hand enough to be able to take Ignis’s to tangle their fingers together. “Just… try to breathe. They’re getting you something for the cold, then you can sleep.”

“Yes,” Ignis agreed. He had closed his eyes and didn’t reopen them.

Noctis’s frown deepened, but there was nothing… not really. He just needed… sleep, right? And those cold meds. He just hoped he was feeling better in the morning. In the meantime… Noct turned to kiss his shoulder, and lingered when he heard Ignis’s approving hum.

“Now _there’s_ the cure for this ailment,” Ignis said weakly.

A short, dry laugh, and Noctis squeezed his hand. “Guess I had better get on that, then,” he joked. Just as weakly.

Ignis squeezed his hand back, and Noct did press another kiss to his shoulder, and then his cheek. And allowed their mother bird to lean against him as they waited. Ignis’s burdens… Noct would always gladly help to share those.


End file.
